Wednesday 22 May 2013

Twitter Ups Web Security With Two-Factor Authentication Via SMS, But Shared Accounts May Still Be In Danger


Twitter Ups Web Security With Two-Factor Authentication Via SMS, But Shared Accounts May Still Be In Danger

Twitter Privacy

After scores of accounts were potentially compromised a few months ago, Twitter today launched two-factor authentication through SMS to protect people from hacks and phishing scams on the web. Unfortunately, it may not help shared accounts like big brands and news agencies where multiple people need to be able to log in and out but only one phone number can get the login verification codes.
Following the Twitter security incident in February where hundreds of thousands of accounts had to have their credentials reset, the tech world demanded Twitter offer two-factor authentication. Wired’s Mat Honan reported last month that Twitter was internally testing the feature. But since then, several prominent accounts including the Associated Press had been hacked through phishing tricks that the security feature could have prevented. With two-factor authentication now in place, we’ll hopefully see fewer compromised individual accounts.
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However the brands and news outlets whose accounts are the most valuable to hackers may not benefit from the feature. They can only set one phone number as the recipient of the two-factor authentication codes, but may have several staff members who need to access the account. If they enabled it, whoever carried the phone registered with Twitter would have to relay the code to all the other staffers to get it to whoever needed it. That hassle might prevent shared accounts from turning on login verifications, and so the hackings may continue.
Hopefully the fact that Twitter labeled its security blog post “Getting Started With Login Verification” means more advancements are on the way that might protect shared accounts. Twitter’s product security team member Jim O’Leary writes “much of the server-side engineering work required to ship this feature has cleared the way for us to deliver more account security enhancements in the future. Stay tuned.”
Twitter Two Factor

HOW TWITTER TWO-FACTOR WORKS

The feature is rolling out now. If you don’t see it in your account settings, you should soon. To enable two-factor authentication, check the box next to Account Security that explains “Require a verification code when I sign in.” You’ll need to enter your phone number if you haven’t already saved it with Twitter. Once you receive a confirmation SMS on your phone you can complete activation of the security feature.
From then on when you enter your name and password to log in on Twitter.com, you’ll get a text message with a verification code you need to enter to prove you’re the account owner. The idea is that if someone steals your name and password, they probably don’t have your phone, too, and they need both to login as you.  Twitter’s “login verification” doesn’t work with its mobile apps, though, so you’ll need to use temporary app passwords to stay safe when logging in on your small screen.
You can watch a video here or below to learn how to use Twitter’s two-factor authentication. You can also check out its help center documentation.

Amazon Wants To Build A Bio-Dome Three Blocks From An Actual, Normal Park


Amazon Wants To Build A Bio-Dome Three Blocks From An Actual, Normal Park

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Amazon has reportedly submitted plans for a new futuristic headquarters in Seattle that combines a skyscraper and a tri-sphere, bio-dome-like structure. According to the plans, the structure will be able to hold various forms of plant life and become a place where employees can “work and socialize in a more natural, park-like setting.”
Because, God forbid, employees walk to the park that’s three blocks away.
Here’s an excerpt from the plans (also, hat tip to GeekWire for the find):
While the form of the building will be visually reminiscent of a greenhouse or conservatory, plant material will be selected for its ability to co-exist in a microclimate that also suits people. To encourage growth and maintain the health of the plants, the building’s interior will include high bay spaces on five floors totaling approximately 65,000 SF and capable of accommodating mature trees. The exterior enclosure will be highly transparent and be composed primarily of multiple layers of glass supported by a metal framework. In addition to a variety of workplace environments, the facility will incorporate dining, meeting and lounge spaces, as well as a variety of botanical zonesmodeled on montane ecologies found around the globe. The building will be anchored at either end by publically accessible retail spaces entered from 6th and 7th Avenues.
Generally, it all sounds very cool and very futuristic and very trendy (read: Apple did the whole“plans for a spaceship” thing ages ago). However, it’s interesting to see how the biggest companies in tech are tackling the issue of working in an office or with a more loose structure.
Remember, everyone made a pretty big deal out of Marissa Mayer’s recent policy change that requires all Yahoo employees to work in an office. And just recently she announced that Yahoo would be taking up space in the Times building in New York’s Times Square, which is capable of housing up to 700 employees.
As it stands now, all of the big four tech companies — Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon — favor keeping employees in the office.
Google has one of the best campuses you could dream of, both in Mountain View and in New York, feeding employees free lunch from world-renowned chefs. Apple is working to build out one of Steve Jobs’ final projects, a new spaceship office. Facebook has the same diversions: chess boards, and video games, and basketball courts, and free lunch.
So of course, the fourth horseman in the race, Amazon is devising its own tricks to keep employees at the office as long as possible. It’s a win-win: Employees do more and better work due to a pleasing and comfortable work environment, and employers get more, and better work, out of their employees.
Also, there’s a perfectly good park just three blocks from the new campus.
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Here’s the full set of plans:

OtterBox Acquires Rival Protective Case Maker LifeProof After Settling Patent Lawsuit


OtterBox Acquires Rival Protective Case Maker LifeProof After Settling Patent Lawsuit

OtterBox LifeProof

OtterBox, which makes the top-selling protective case for smartphones, hasannounced the acquisition of LifeProof for an undisclosed amount.
News of the acquisition comes one day after a lawsuit filed by OtterBox against LifeProof for patent infringement was dismissed. OtterBox told the North Carolina Business Report that the acquisition was not related to the lawsuit or any settlement. Headquartered in San Diego, LifeProof also makes protective cases and accessories for smartphones and tablets.
Over the next 30 days, OttberBox will beginning incorporating the LifeProof brand into OtterBox’s product lineup. More information about product availability and alignment will be available after that period. OtterBox currently has about 650 employees worldwide, while LifeProof, which was founded in 2009, employs about 250 people, who the companies say will remain in their San Diego location “for the foreseeable future.”
“Our strategy is to utilize our combined brand momentum, and world-class talent to create a great customer experience that generates OtterBox brand ambassadors for life,” Thomas said in the acquisition announcement.
In addition to its extremely durable smartphone cases, which are designed to withstand drops, water immersion and debris, OtterBox also makes protective coverings for other mobile devices such as tablets, as well as screen protectors and accessories. LifeProof’s cases are designed for people with very active lifestyles (or who are especially accident prone around mountains, concrete and bodies of water)

Samsung Galaxy S4 Shipments Hit 10 Million One Month After Release


Samsung Galaxy S4 Shipments Hit 10 Million One Month After Release


galaxy-s4
Samsung’s Galaxy S4 has hit 10 million channel sales one month after its release. The companyannounced its latest milestone today just eight days after confirming that it had shipped over 6 million units of the S4 since its international launch on April 26. According to Samsung, this is the fastest ever sell rate for any of its smartphones.
The latest entry in the Galaxy series–meant as Samsung’s iPhone challenger–has sold much more quickly than its predecessors. The Galaxy S4′s milestone beats the record set by theGalaxy S3, which reached 10 million channel sales 50 days after its launch in 2012. TheGalaxy S2 took five months and the Galaxy Sseven months to reach the same number.
(Channel sales are to wireless operators and not direct to consumers. In other words, the numbers are for units shipped.)
The Galaxy S4 had to overcome inventory issues that disrupted its U.S. rollout and were attributed by the company to unexpectedly high demand for the phone. Though the Galaxy S4 is indeed selling swiftly, reinforcing Samsung’s dominance of the worldwide smartphone market, Jordan Crook noted after it hit 6 million units shipped that the iPhone is still technically a faster selling phone than any of Samsung’s Galaxy models.
When the iPhone 5 launched, Apple took over 2 million pre-orders in the first 24 hours available. Furthermore, iPhone 5 pre-orders were two times the number of pre-orders seen for the iPhone 4S. Despite Apple’s recent earnings woes, consumers still love their iPhones, andSamsung VS Apple: Battle Smartphone is not over quite yet, especially as the Cupertino company prepares to launch new products this fall.

Frustrated with the Xbox One? That’s okay, because Microsoft isn’t building its next system for you


Frustrated with the Xbox One? That’s okay, because Microsoft isn’t building its next system for you


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Microsoft’s unveiling of the Xbox One yesterday caused quite a stir among the gaming community. The mixed messages regarding always-on and always-online (which are two completely different concepts by the way) and pre-owned games didn’t help either.
The larger concern surrounds Microsoft’s messaging to its core audience. The reliance on multimedia functionality, such as the ability to switch between live TV and Xbox appsusing Kinect-enabled voice commands, was seen by many as a distraction from what Microsoft’s presentation should have been about. Video games.
Video games are, after all, what the original Xbox was designed to do. First and foremost, it’s what every video game system up until now was supposed to do. For all the extra ‘bells and whistles’, any console that didn’t provide an adequate gaming experience was deemed a failure. And rightly so.
2013 05 21 10h15 34 730x347 Frustrated with the Xbox One? That’s okay, because Microsoft isn’t building its next system for you
Sony made a conscious effort at its PlayStation 4 reveal event to position the new hardware as a console for gamers. Almost everything the company showed was directed at this core audience. The hardware specifications, the exclusive games, the presence of industry heavyweights such as Mark Cerny and Jonathan Blow all added to the idea that this was a ‘hardcore’ event.
It wasn’t for the masses. That, presumably, is for E3.
Microsoft has a strong following of ‘core’ gamers due to its robust Xbox Live service. It also gets early access to downloadable content for juggernaut franchises such as Call of Duty, adding to the perception that it’s the preferred system for competitive multiplayer.
The launch of Kinect signalled a fundamental shift of the Xbox brand, however, towards a new form of interactive hardware. Microsoft wants the Xbox One to be the intermediary solution for all content consumption, including live and on-demand TV, music and games. It’s why the push for apps such as Netflix, Xbox Music and ESPN has been so strong in recent times.
0023 730x486 Frustrated with the Xbox One? That’s okay, because Microsoft isn’t building its next system for you
So make no mistake; Microsoft is gearing the Xbox One as an all-in-one set-top box, that just so happens to have some of the most powerful and robust video game hardware under the hood.
The Internet was awash with comments last night about the lack of games being shown and in particular, the almost complete absence of gameplay footage. The pre-owned and always online debacle was also in full effect, but that’s an argument for another time. Gamers took issue with the fact that they were considered second-class citizens again to the wider public.
That message isn’t going to change anytime soon. As far as Microsoft is concerned, it has the video game experience nailed down right now. The company is now looking afield to its next wave of competitors; streaming boxes such as RokuGoogle TV and the long-rumored Apple TV.
Screen Shot 2013 05 21 at 10.46.04 AM 730x347 Frustrated with the Xbox One? That’s okay, because Microsoft isn’t building its next system for you
Before Apple makes a move in this space, Microsoft has a crucial window to position the Xbox One as a new type of hardware; not a gaming console, but a full entertainment system that is the best at delivering every type of content as quickly and effortlessly as possible.
That was the message Microsoft delivered yesterday. Gamers can question whether it was the right time to deliver that particular line; it was perhaps a mis-step given that the event would have been seen almost exclusively by the press, gamers and publishers, rather than the general public that tune into E3.
The truth, in the end, is that the Xbox One is no longer just a video game console. For Microsoft, it represents an awful lot more.

Twitter just added Lead Generation to Twitter Cards, this could be big


Twitter just added Lead Generation to Twitter Cards, this could be big


Twitter logo is displayed at the entranc
Twitter unveiled the Lead Generation Card today, a new expandable tweet format which allows users to show their interest in a particular discount or offer that’s being promoted by their favorite brand.
When a user expands the tweet, they’ll see a description of the offer, as well a small button underneath that will allow them to instantly send their basic contact information – name, Twitter handle and email address – to the brand or business in question.
All of the information is pre-filled within the Twitter Card based on the users’ existing account settings, thereby avoiding the often tedious process of filling out an online form. As soon as the button is clicked, the information is sent securely to the account that sent out the offer.
LeadGenCard 520 Twitter just added Lead Generation to Twitter Cards, this could be big
Twitter has been testing the feature already with a handfulof brands including New RelicFull Sail and Priceline.
The idea is to give businesses more opportunities to discover new customers, and also reduce the amount of time spent between spotting an offer on Twitter and actually paying for the product or service online.
It’s also far more sophisticated than the act of simply following an account on Twitter, or ‘liking’ a brand’s page on Facebook. The Lead Generation Card gives businesses and marketers a simple and direct means of finding new customers and ultimately more business.
So how could this work in the real world? Well, an obvious use case is product pre-orders. Microsoft unveiled its latest video game console, Xbox One, at a dedicated event in Richmond, Washington yesterday. Using the Lead Generation Card, the company could have tweeted a picture of the hardware and then asked its followers to give them their contact details if they were interested in pre-ordering the system. Then, once the console is available to order, Microsoft would instantly have access to a pre-generated list of potential customers.
It’s not clear at this point whether Lead Generation Cards are restricted to just Promoted Tweets, or if businesses can apply the new format to all of their tweets containing a suitable offer. Regardless, the new feature will undoubtedly attract renewed interest from brands and businesses looking to engage with their customers and also generate new leads.
“Today, the Lead Generation Card will only be available to our managed clients; we have plans to launch this Card globally and to small and medium-sized businesses soon,” Mitali Pattnaik, Product Manager for Revenue at Twitter said.

Google’s new conversational search feature is live in the latest version of Chrome


Google’s new conversational search feature is live in the latest version of Chrome


Google Opens New Berlin Office
Google has quietly rolled out its new conversational search feature in the latest version of its Chrome browser for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Users that hit up the Google homepage will now see a small microphone symbol in the right-hand side of the search field, as well as at the top of any page containing search results; it will ask for permissions to access a connected microphone, before enabling conversational search queries.
The update means that users can now search the Internet and ask Google questions from the desktop using only their voice. The idea is that people should be able to use words and phrases used in everyday conversation, rather than the strict keywords that have been embedded in our brains over the last decade or so.
The user could ask, for instance, ‘How do I get to Wembley Stadium?’, and Google will interpret the question and then serve up relevant route information via Google Maps. As with Google Now, the service also draws on information stored through other Google products and services. If the user asks when their flight is supposed to leave, or if they’re free later this afternoon, the service will automatically dig into Google Calendar to check.
Screen Shot 2013 05 22 at 13.07.33 730x390 Google’s new conversational search feature is live in the latest version of Chrome
Subsequent queries can then be initiated using the phrase “Okay Google”, similar to that found in its upcoming Google Glass hardware. Google is clearly developing these new search products as a context-sensitive personal assistant. Voice input might feel jarring for some, but the ability to discover new information on the Web and apply that to users’ own daily routine and information is a powerful concept.
As with Google Now, conversational search should help to provide users with information at the right time, when they need it. Bringing the feature to all major desktop operating systems should give all Google users access to the service, regardless of what device they’re using.

Amazon unveils Kindle Worlds publishing platform to help aspiring fan fiction writers sell their work



Amazon unveils Kindle Worlds publishing platform to help aspiring fan fiction writers sell their work


The Amazon logo is seen on a podium duri
Amazon announced a new publishing platform today called Kindle Worlds, which will give both established authors and aspiring fan fiction writers the chance to earn royalties based on their work.
Fan fiction is a rather murky topic, given that it often combines beloved characters and franchises in rather unusual scenarios. Regardless, the medium has proven to be incredibly popular on the Internet and it’s clear that Amazon sees an opportunity to earn some additional profits.
The company has secured licenses from Warner Bros. Television Group’s Alloy Entertainment division for Gossip Girl, by Cecily von Ziegesar; Pretty Little Liars, by Sara Shepard; and Vampire Diaries, by L.J. Smith. All three are also incredibly successful TV shows in their own right, which should add to the interest both from fans and aspiring writers.
Amazon says it plans to announce more licenses “soon”.
The new Kindle Worlds platform will enable any author to publish stories based on these characters and then make them available for purchase through the Kindle Store. Amazon will then pay royalties both to the author of the fan fiction and the original rights holder. The standard author’s royalty rate – for fiction that is at least 10,000 words in length – will be just over a third (35 percent) of net revenue.
“As with all titles from Amazon Publishing, Kindle Worlds will base net revenue off of sales price—rather than the lower, industry standard of wholesale price—and royalties will be paid monthly,” the company said today in a statement.
To coincide with the announcement, Amazon is also launching a pilot program to give additional exposure to short stories of between 5,000 and 10,000 words. For these works, Amazon promises to pay the royalties for the rights holder and authors a digital royalty of 20 percent.
The Kindle Worlds store will launch in June with over 50 commissioned works from established authors such as Barbara Freethy, John Everson and Colleen Thompson. The self-service submission platform, which will allow fan fiction writers to file completed work, will also open simultaneously.

IBM Suits Up Watson to Tackle Thorny Customer Service Problems


IBM Suits Up Watson to Tackle Thorny Customer Service Problems


The software that defeated a couple ofJeopardy champions will now take on what could be a much tougher challenge -- answering customer service questions. IBM is making its Watson artificial intelligence solution, with its ability to address questions posed in natural language, available commercially. It is also opening up Watson to application development.

IBM on Tuesday announced that it will offer Watson -- its artificial intelligence software package that won the Jeopardy game show -- as a customer service solution called Watson Engagement Advisor, a cognitive computing assistant that rapidly learns, adapts and understands a company's data.
Watson's data-crunching capabilities will be offered as part of IBM's Smarter Commerceinitiative for automating a business's marketing, sales, procurement, supply chain, and service functions.
It will also be delivered as a cloud service to consumers' mobile devices for self-service.
"We use automated calling solutions today," said Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research. "Using Watson technology just takes it one step closer to an artificial intelligence model."
IBM representatives Alicia DiGennaro and Alison Meyerstein pointed TechNewsWorld to alivestream of the company's announcements and to IBM's blog post on the topic.

What's a Watson?

Watson is an artificial intelligence software package that can answer questions posed in natural language, meaning the way people speak. It was developed to answer questions onJeopardy.
Watson was programmed in Java and C++. It includes Apache Hadoop and Apache UIMA (Unstructured Information Management Architecture), and ran on 90 IBM Power 750 servers using the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 operating system.
Watson implements IBM's DeepQA architecture, which is a massively parallel probabilistic evidence-based architecture. It relies on many experts, pervasive confidence estimation, and integration of shallow and deep knowledge.
Pervasive confidence estimation means that every component produces an answer or part of it from a different interpretation of a question and the content of the answer. An underlying confidence layer stacks and combines the scores for the best answer. Shallow and deep knowledge are integrated by balancing the use of strict and shallow semantics and leveraging loosely formed ontologies.
Watson used more than 100 different techniques for analyzing natural language, identifying sources, finding, generating, merging and ranking hypotheses, and finding and ranking evidence, to participate in Jeopardy.

It's About the Content

Content acquisition is key to using DeepQA, and for the Jeopardy challenge, sources of information ranged from encyclopedias, dictionaries , thesauri and newswire articles to literary works, databases, taxonomies and structured data sources such as dbPedia and Yago. More than 200 million structured and unstructured documents were fed into Watson for its participation in the game show.
The variety of content led to trouble when the contents of the Urban Dictionary site were fed into Watson. The site has profanity and sexual innuendo, and Watson began using those words in its responses until IBM researchers created a filter that cleaned up its responses.
DeepQA solves questions by applying its end-to-end QA subsystem on each subclue and synthesizing the final answers using a customizable answer combination.
The DeepQA architecture is applicable to other tasks.

Using Watson in Customer Service

The Watson Engagement Advisor will be delivered through the cloud and as online chat sessions.
"Watson can provide a set of solutions much more quickly than other systems, and a relatively low level of training would be needed for the [customer service representative] answering a call," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld. "If this were done on-line, Watson could also make suggestions about how to reword the query better and, through interaction, get the answer through iteration. This might be far more satisfying than the non-answer you might otherwise get."
"Because of its size, Watson is more of a cloud solution," Tirias Research's McGregor said.

A Threat to Siri and Google Now?

IBM is opening up Watson to developers so they can create an ecosystem of apps around the AI.
This is aimed at monetizing the technology, and "if you could integrate it with other applications like Siri, Google Now, and the plethora of other voice user interfaces and applications that will be emerging, it could be useful for mobile solutions," Tirias Research's McGregor told TechNewsWorld.
"Note that you can already ask many of these applications questions and get answers," McGregor said. "So, is Watson a competitor to these solutions or a complement?

Teenager's Power Storage Project Lights Up Science World


Teenager's Power Storage Project Lights Up Science World


The future of mobile computing will include flexible displays and wearable technology, and a California teenager's science project could help power those developments. Eesha Khare's prize-winning supercapacitor is perfect for the kinds of energy storage needed for those technologies because of its small size and power capacity. In the meantime, she's basking in the glow of scientific achievement.

Interest in nanochemistry research and energy storage led 18-year-old Eesha Khare, a senior at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, to develop a supercapacitor that could potentially be used in flexible displays and fabrics.
Her effort won her first prize at the Intel Science Fair and the Project of the Year award in the California State Science Fair's senior division for 2013.
Khare created a nanorod electrode capacitor with increased electricity density that retained a supercapacitor's energy density and long life.
"I wanted to see if I could apply my research to a commercial idea," Khare told TechNewsWorld. There hasn't been as much research done in the supercapacitor area as there is for batteries and capacitors, so she decided to focus on supercapacitors.
There's been speculation that the supercapacitor might be able to recharge a cell phone battery rapidly, but "this advancement is not really about charging mobile solutions, it's about power storage," said Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research. "Perhaps instead of two batteries or cells, you might have a single battery or cell with something like this capacitor to recharge the battery."

A Thumbnail Sketch of Khare's Project

Khare designed, synthesized and characterized a core-shell nanorod electrode with a hydrogenated titanium dioxide core and polyaniline shell.
The titanium dioxide acts as a double-layer electrostatic core. In electric double-layer capacitors, the electrical charge stored at the interface of a metal, and an electrolyte is used to construct a storage device.
The good conductivity of the hydrogenated titanium dioxide combined with the high pseudocapacity of polyaniline results in heightened overall capacitance and energy density while retaining power density and cycle life. Pseudocapacitance can increase the capacitance value of a supercapacitor by an order of magnitude over the double-layer's capacitance.
Researchers often work with one form of titanium dioxide, anatase, but Khare grew rutile titanium dioxide crystals instead because "rutile offered a direct electron transport pathway" even though it was harder to grow.
She put down an initial seed growth of rutile on a flexible substrate and used thermodynamic growth, where the rutile aggregated on top of itself.
The new electrode was fabricated into a flexible solid-state device to light an LED as a test of a practical application. It demonstrated a capacitance of 238.5 Farads per gram compared to the 80 F/G of the next best alternative supercapacitor in previous research. This resulted in excellent energy density of 20.1 Wh/kg, comparable to batteries, while maintaining a high power density of 20540 W/kg. It also demonstrated a much higher cycle life compared to batteries.
Khare used laboratory equipment at the University of California Santa Cruz under the supervision of professor Yat Li, who agreed to work with her after she had reached out to "30 or 40 professors at many universities in my area" without success.
Google has reached out to Khare but "I haven't followed through with them yet."
Google did not respond to our request to comment for this story.

EU leaders shine spotlight on Amazon, Google over tax policy


EU leaders shine spotlight on Amazon, Google over tax policy

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron arrives at a European Union leaders summit in Brussels May 22, 2013. REUTERS-Eric Vidal
European leaders will discuss how to combat aggressive tax avoidance by major companies such as Amazon, Google and Apple at a summit on Wednesday, and cut the estimated 1 trillion euros a year the EU loses to tax evasion or avoidance.
The four-hour summit was originally called to discuss energy policy, but investigations in Britain, France and the United States exposing how little tax major international companies have been paying by carefully structuring their European operations has forced the issue to the top of the agenda.
France and Britain in particular have grown concerned by the sheer scale of the legal tax schemes, with a U.S. investigation revealing on Monday that Apple Inc had paid just 2 percent tax on $74 billion in overseas income, largely by exploiting a loophole in Ireland's tax code.
That followed reports that the British unit of Amazon paid just $3.7 million tax on 2012 sales of $6.5 billion, and similar revelations concerning the UK operations of Google and Starbucks.
In all, officials estimate that EU governments miss out on around 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) a year through the legal tax avoidance techniques employed by such companies and illegal tax evasion.
"A lot of these revenues (from the digital economy) are not getting taxed," said a French diplomat briefing reporters in Paris ahead of the summit. "We need to find a way of bringing home the tax on these activities."
Officials said French President Francois Hollande could raise the issue with other leaders at the meeting, though it was unclear what agreement could be reached with little advanced preparation and just four hours of talks scheduled.
A draft of the summit's declaration, which is agreed in advance but can be changed, set out nine proposals for strengthening tax policy and coordination, including fighting tax avoidance schemes and the process of routing profits abroad.
"Work will be carried forward as regards the Commission's recommendations on aggressive tax planning and profit shifting," a draft seen by Reuters read.
While there is common consent among EU leaders that action needs to be taken to close loopholes and level the playing field on tax policy, little has been done on the issues despite regular lobbying by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other international organizations.
In a report in March last year, the OECD, a club for wealthy countries, set out in detail how companies were using "hybrid mismatch arrangements" to avoid paying taxes, the very technique that Apple is alleged to have used in its tax planning.
"We have got to make sure as we set those tax rates that companies pay taxes, and that means international collaboration, the sharing of tax information," said British Prime Minister David Cameron as he arrived at the summit.
Cameron has put tax policy on the agenda of the G8 meeting taking place next month in Ireland.
NAME NO NAMES
But officials played down the possibility of immediate steps to close tax loopholes or any naming and shaming of companies in the final summit declaration, saying it was primarily up to EU member states to craft the necessary legislation, and to work through wider international forums such as the OECD.
"But while companies may be using loopholes to pay as little tax as possible, the truth is it's a national issue," said an EU official preparing the summit. "It's up to the relevant member states to change their tax codes and tighten the net."
The official said the most likely outcome from the talks was tougher language on strengthening bilateral tax treaties and bolstering so-called "anti-abuse" rules in national legislation.
Eversheds, a global law firm dealing with tax issues, said that while recent cases involving high-profile U.S. companies had pushed the tax issue to the top of the global agenda, it could not be tackled with any quick or immediate steps.
"While the issues deserves this top-level attention, the public should not expect any game-changing developments, and indeed it would be wrong for the EU to try to tackle the issue on its own," said Ben Jones, a tax expert at the firm.
"Uncoordinated attempts by individual countries or blocs of countries to tackle the issue may actually create more tax 'loopholes' or have a detrimental impact on businesses that do not engage in aggressive tax planning."
France has already shown its willingness to take on major U.S. companies, with authorities raiding Google in a 2011 investigation into whether its Paris office conducts sales work. The company was asked to pay 1.7 billion euros in back taxes.
A similar issue has arisen with how Google operates in Britain, with questions raised about whether its sales staff are based abroad, as the company maintains, or in the country, which would create a liability to UK tax.
Google says it follows tax rules everywhere it operates and that references to selling in job ads for British-based staff reflect the fact that it likes to hire people with a sales background.
($1 = 0.7769 euros)

Apple CEO makes no apology for company's tax strategy


Apple CEO makes no apology for company's tax strategy

Apple CEO Tim Cook (C), CFO Peter Oppenheimer (L) and Apple Head of tax operations Philip Bullock appear before a Senate homeland security and governmental affairs investigations subcommittee hearing on offshore profit shifting and the U.S. tax code, on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 21, 2013. REUTERS-Jason Reed


iPad maker saving billions of dollars in U.S. taxes through Irish subsidiaries and told lawmakers that his company backs corporate tax reform, even though it may end up paying more.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has found that Apple in 2012 alone avoided paying $9 billion in U.S. taxes, using a strategy involving three offshore units with no discernible tax home, or "residence."
Cook, in his first congressional testimony since becoming Apple CEO in 2011, said his company is a major taxpayer, handing over nearly $6 billion in cash to the U.S. government in 2012.
"We expect to pay even more this year," Cook said. "We pay all the taxes we owe."
But Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the subcommittee and a veteran tax sleuth, said Apple had sought "the Holy Grail of tax avoidance," creating one Irish unit that paid no income taxes to any national tax authority for the past five years.
Levin said Apple used Ireland as a base for a web of offshore holding companies and negotiated a deal with the Irish government for a tax rate of less than 2 percent. The top U.S. corporate tax rate is 35 percent, one of the world's highest.
Cook said Apple did not depend on tax gimmicks. "We don't move intellectual property offshore and use it to sell our products back to the United States to avoid taxes. We don't stash money on some Caribbean island," he said.
In Ireland, where low corporate taxes have been an economic development tool for many years, the government said it had not made a special tax deal with Apple. If Apple's tax rate was too low, it was the fault of other countries, deputy prime minister Eamon Gilmore told national broadcaster RTE on Tuesday.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday that PresidentBarack Obama "thinks it is inexplicable that our tax code would actually be written in a way that rewards companies for taking jobs and profits offshore."
HP, MICROSOFT PRECEDED APPLE
Subcommittee staffers said on Monday that Apple was not breaking any laws and had cooperated fully with the inquiry.
Levin's panel has previously examined what it called tax avoidance by other U.S. technology giants, including Hewlett-Packard Co and Microsoft Corp. The senator said Apple has used similar tax avoidance strategies.
Senator John McCain praised Apple as a success story, but he said the company's tax strategy reflected a "flawed" tax system.
"For years, Apple has opted to forego fully contributing to the U.S. Treasury and to American society by shifting profits and circumventing U.S. taxes," McCain said.
Cook said Apple agreed with those in Congress who want to reform corporate taxes and called for changes that include lower corporate income tax rates and a reasonable tax on foreign earnings.
"Apple recognizes these and other improvements in the U.S. corporate tax system may increase the company's taxes," he said in prepared testimony.
Many U.S. multinationals take advantage of a tax law that allows profits earned abroad to be tax-free as long as they are not brought into the United States, or "repatriated." Total U.S. corporate profits parked offshore rose 15 percent to $1.9 trillion last year, according to research firm Audit Analytics.
Taking advantage of this law and others, the offshore earnings of U.S. companies have risen 70 percent in the past five years, Audit Analytics said two weeks ago.
"The baldness of the Apple strategy surprises me more than anything else," said University of Southern California Law Professor Edward Kleinbard. "European member states are going to be very angry with Apple and very angry with Ireland."
OFFSHORE MANEUVERS
Offshore profits are typically taxed by the countries in which they are earned, but companies work hard to move offshore profits into countries with lower tax rates, like Ireland.
One way this is done is through "transfer pricing," or the management of moving goods and services across international borders from one corporate unit to another. Sometimes companies move valuable intellectual property to a low-tax country, then bring profits derived from its use into that country through royalty payments and other structures.
Levin's panel said Apple used a cost-sharing agreement "to transfer valuable intellectual property assets offshore and shift the resulting profits to a tax haven jurisdiction."
Assessing taxes on these arrangements is one of the biggest challenges facing U.S. tax collectors, said Mark Mazur, assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department, who testified after Cook.
The panel also said Apple took advantage of loopholes in tax law and regulations known as "check the box" and "look through" that let some offshore units be disregarded for tax purposes, sheltering substantial profits from taxation.
Levin has unsuccessfully called for closing the "check the box" and "look through" provisions of the tax code.
The Levin inquiry comes at a turbulent time in tax circles, with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service under investigation because of the way agents handled conservative political groups' applications for tax-exempt status.
It is not clear, however, whether that controversy and Levin's allegations will lead to an overhaul of the U.S. tax code. Tax law writers in Congress had been inching forward on such a project before the IRS scandal erupted earlier this month. Levin's inquiry has been under way for months.
Shares of Apple closed down 0.7 percent at $439.66 on Tuesday.