Instagram, Vine and Netflix hit by Amazon glitch

Software problems at one of Amazon's data centres has knocked out several high profile web services.

Users of Instagram, Netflix, Vine, Airbnb and several other services reported problems getting through to the services for several hours late on Sunday.

All of them rely on servers that are part of Amazon's cloud-based network.

The problems were traced to a data centre in northern Virginia that was struggling to keep up with demand.

Also caught up in the network problems were cloud software firm Heroku and web automation service IFTTT.

Instagram was the first to acknowledge that access to its services was intermittent via Twitter and other services put out warning messages soon after.

The problems for Americans began about 16:00 Eastern time (21:00 GMT) and continued for several hours. During this time access to the web services was intermittent with many people reporting that login pages were hard to reach or pages were taking a long time to update.

On the status page for its web services, Amazon said it was investigating a series of problems at the Virginia data centre. The problems hit databases, software that spreads queries across servers as well as the code controlling the core computers underlying the whole service.

After the problems were resolved, Amazon said the glitch was caused by the "partial failure of a networking device" but added no further details.

The short-lived problems come less than a week after Amazon's North American web stores went offline for about 30 minutes.

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23839901

Samsung Android flip phones

Largest cellphone makers Samsung Electronics, is said to be developing a flip phone which would run on the Android OS. The device is only listed on Samsung's Chinese website and the company has not announced plans to sell it elsewhere.

Stuff.co.nz reports that the comeback version of the flip phone is called the W789, featuring two screens, one on the cover and another on the inside and comes in a light-purple colored shell with a retro numerical keyboard for dialing.

The report said the device's two screens measure 3.3 inches and have 320x480 pixel resolutions.

The W789 is rumoured to run on a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, with a 5-megapixel rear camera and has 8 GB of storage running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Apple new iPhones 'will be called 5S and 5C,' according to a Japanese website

A Japanese website believes it has confirmation that the successor to iPhone 5 will be called the iPhone 5S, and that Apple’s rumoured low-cost iPhone will be known as the iPhone 5C.

The website Macotakara said that its 'sources in Asia' have confirmed the names, which have long been under speculation.

The C in the iPhone 5C is thought to stand for 'colour' which could suggest that the phone will come in a range of colours, rather than the standard black and white options.

Apple is set to officially unveil the new generation iPhone at an event next month, insiders say.

It is believed the event, allegedly on September 10, will see the launch of the upcoming iPhone 5S and possibly also a rumoured iPhone 5C 'low-cost' device.

Indicated updates on the iPhone 5S include sensor which can identify the owner by his or her fingerprints.

Photographs have leaked of a smartphone dubbed ‘5C’, supposedly intended as a cheaper version of the popular iPhone, with a plastic case.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2389896/Apples-long-awaited-new-iPhones-called-5S-5C-claims-Japanese-website.html#ixzz2bl3dYDLY