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BetaNews.Com (17 non lus)

Time Warner to sell WiMAX in Charlotte, Dallas

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 11:28pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Time Warner will become the next Clearwire WiMAX reseller, CEO Glenn Britt said in the company's second quarter earnings call on Wednesday, making the cable company the third major reseller of Clear 4G wireless.
Time Warner invested in Sprint and Clearwire's consolidation into the Clear 4G wireless network along with Intel, Google and fellow cable companies Bright House Networks and Comcast.
At the end of June, Comcast announced that it would launch its own WiMAX subscription plans under the name "Comcast High Speed 2go" in Portland and continue in Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia as their WiMAX deployments are completed.
Time Warner, on the other hand, mentioned that its first 4G networks will be set up in four U.S. markets including Dallas, Texas and Charlotte, North Carolina, two cities whose WiMAX deployments are expected to be complete by the end of 2009. The company did not disclose the other two cities in which the service will launch.
Since there are only four major WiMAX deployments in the United States at present --Portland, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Las Vegas-- there would only be one option for Time Warner if it were to launch its WiMAX business immediately. Comcast has claimed Portland and Atlanta, and Sprint is the reseller in Baltimore, which leaves Las Vegas, the newest WiMAX network which launched just two weeks ago.
However, the company did not go into detail about the timeframe of its WiMAX launch, so it is possible that it could set up in any of the 15 new markets expected to launch in the next year.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Craig Mundie: The future of the PC is 'a room'

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 10:40pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research & strategy officer, is charged with anticipating the future and the computing technologies people will need in the future. Early this afternoon, during Microsoft's annual Financial Analyst Meeting, Mundie spoke about the importance of natural user interfaces. He described one user interface I would never have imagined -- or perhaps you won't.
The successor to the PC is "a room," Mundie told FAM attendees. Apparently, Microsoft's big-ass Surface computer is even too small for Microsoft's vision leader. He demoed the room, too. Mundie described his desktop as a Surface computer, but the real user interface was the wall.
I describe the room like this: A cubicle with living post-it notes and pinned-up papers -- meaning real time and digital. I suppose it's clutter turned off with a switch, if you wanted to use the room as a, well, room.
Oh, yes, and there's a resident digital assistant. He reminded me of a modernized, stylized and handsomer version of Max Headroom. Craig asked the assistant about the day's appointments -- postponing one -- among other questions.
Another way to describe the room, which responds to the person, is that house in Syfy series Eureka. The one with the sultry voice and fussy character.
I had been thinking that computers would get smaller, not larger. My smartphone and laptop are plenty of computers for me. But a room?
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Microsoft confirms 'Windows Phone' branding, but OS will still be Windows Mobile

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 10:14pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Last night, the UK's Inquirer announced that Windows Mobile will be changing its name to "Windows Phone". Microsoft confirmed the Windows Phone branding to Betanews today, but said that "Windows Mobile" is not going anywhere.
"Microsoft started using the term, Windows Phone, within the industry at Mobile World Congress on February 16, 2009," a spokesman noted today. "It is a simple way for consumers to identify the new generation of Windows phones that will be available this fall through our mobile partners; and will include new services on them such as My Phone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile."
The operating system will still be known as Windows Mobile, it's just the platform with all of the new bells and whistles that will be called "Windows Phone." This unification of OS, hardware and brand is similar to what RIM and Apple have done with BlackBerry and iPhone.
"Consumers will start to see a change in marketing communications including retail with the Windows Mobile 6.5 launch," the spokesman said. "We will still use the term 'Windows Mobile' to identify the operating system releases (e.g. - 6.1, 6.5)."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Ballmer: Apple market share gains are a 'rounding error'

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 9:42pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was in surprisingly good form this morning, as he kicked off the company's annual Financial Analysts Meeting. His presentation was one of the best in years. The economy may be cool, but Ballmer is hot.
Perhaps his most piercing comments were about Apple, a competitor that has nipped away Windows PC market share and proved to be a formidable opponent in mobile devices markets.
Ballmer dismissed Mac shipments of "10 million" units a year as being meaningless. He described Mac market share gains as "a rounding error." Ballmer emphasized: "Apple's share globally cost us nothing."
But what he didn't say: Microsoft gained much. In a later presentation, Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment & Devices division, touted the revenue contribution from Microsoft consumer software, which Macintosh Office is the largest component. Increased Mac sales do benefit Microsoft.
Some advice to Ballmer: Perhaps FAM attendees should receive some Windows 7 netbook swag. Too many attendees -- or at least too many for Microsoft's CEO -- use Mac laptops. "We have lower share in the investor audience." he said looking out at attendees. "Don't hide them. I've already counted them," he joked. "Feel free, as long as you're using Office."
Ballmer laid out the philosophic differences between Microsoft's approach to personal computers compared to Apple. Microsoft's focus is high volume, high value and low price. By comparison, Apple focuses on high price and low volume. What he didn't say: High margin. Apple commands some of the highest, perhaps the highest, hardware margins in the computing industry.
High volume is essentially important to Microsoft's Windows business strategy, Ballmer explained. "You can't be high priced. That doesn't get us to the high volume that we aspire to." Value and volume are longstanding Microsoft corporate principles, which go back to the IBM PC era. Clearly, Microsoft has no plans to abandon value and volume principles.
Apple justifies higher pricing by asserting that "'at the end of the day we have the coolest hardware,'" Ballmer claimed. For holiday 2009, Windows PC manufacturers will release new hardware -- and that will wipe away Apple's hardware design justification, he asserted. "New PC designs -- boom -- we're going to have a heck of a Christmas."
COO Kevin Turner followed Ballmer and made a separate competitive attack. Turner reiterated Microsoft's "Apple Tax" claims, asserting that consumers pay more for Macs than PCs. He used an ad circular comparing Windows PC and Mac configurations and pricing. Typically this is true: Comparably configured Windows PCs often do cost less than Macs.
That said, there are hidden features not alway obvious on either side, such as extra-long battery life in new MacBook Pros or Blu-ray playback in some Windows portables.
The question I'd like to pose to commenters: Are Mac market share gains "a rounding error?"
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Invite-only Windows 7 beta testers get their free copies after all

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 9:35pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Microsoft's support for a public "eager to begin using Windows 7" has now extended to Technical beta testers, who will be getting a free full version of the operating system. Earlier this month, word got out that Windows 7 tech beta testers would actually not be receiving a free copy of Windows 7 as testers of Vista did, which elicited the expected amount of criticism.
However, official Windows blogger Brandon LeBlanc, who made that announcement announced today that he was wrong, and that members of the invitation only Windows 7 Technical Beta program will be able to download free English language copies of Windows 7 Ultimate on August 6, or have a boxed copy shipped on October 22, the day it is released in stores.
This offer does not involve those who tested the Windows 7 public beta and release candidate versions, and instructions and forms for obtaining the free copy of the OS will be put up on Microsoft Connect on Monday, August 3.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Robbie Bach: Windows Mobile had a 'challenging year'

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 8:55pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices division, today told Wall Street analysts that the company's mobile strategy would improve. He laid out Microsoft's go-forward mobile strategy during the annual Financial Analysts Meeting.
Bach acknowledged that Windows Mobile had "a challenging year," with market share declining even as unit numbers increased. The company is ramping up for Windows Mobile 6.5's official release in October. Whoa, Bach asserted that the browsing experience on Windows Mobile 6.5 would be better than iPhone.
"We have to do a better job executing...and operating our business," Bach said. Is that an understatement. I have repeatedly criticized Microsoft's mobile strategy as being weak.
Bach's presentation lacked a critically fundamental element: Software platform. Apple's App Store platform is hugely popular -- with over 1.5 billion applications downloads -- and gaining. He simply ignored the importance of mobile applications.
Bach laid out the broader mobile strategy in four areas: Choice and selection; end-user experience; cloud services; and brand marketing.
Choice and selection is Microsoft's response to Apple's single-vendor, hardware-software approach. Earlier, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made clear that Microsoft planned to innovate with mobile software rather than make a phone. Google has similar strategy with Android.
The E&D president observed that Windows Mobile delivers a good business experience, but Microsoft has work to do for consumers. He rightly explained that converging lifestyles makes focus on both markets -- business and consumer -- essential.
"Our experiences are very good in the business space," but "our experiences are not as rich as they should be" in the consumer space, Bach said. Microsoft's mobile priority: "Taking our success in business...and expanding that across consumer scenarios."
But I'm troubled by his timing: "This is something that is going to play out over the next 3 to 5 years." Years? Apple has stormed the cell phone market in less than two years, and Google has made surprising gains in about one year. Microsoft doesn't have 3 to 5 years.
Bach also put the mobile strategy in context of "three screens in a cloud" -- PC, mobile phone and TV -- across social services. "Apple is very strong on the device side," but not as much in services. Google is stronger in the cloud, but not services. Microsoft can deliver in both areas, Bach asserted.
I'm rather stunned by the assertion. Apple has a surprisingly strong three-screen strategy with iPhone/iPod, Apple TV and Macs or Windows PCs. For example, movies purchased from the iTunes Store sync across the three screens, and resume play wherever stopped on whatever device. Then there is Google's Android, which offers strong cloud-to-mobile integration, certainly better than Windows Mobile today.
Bach simply ignores App Store, which is the preeminent mobile applications platform based on number of mobile apps available or downloaded. Surely, Microsoft knows that applications are fundamental to the success of any platform. So if Microsoft has a cloud-to-mobile device strategy, where are the applications? Once a mobile applications leader, Microsoft now trails recent upstarts. Once again, I strongly recommend that Microsoft embark on a mobile OS and browser Manhattan Project. The 3-to-5 year time horizon is way too long.
The E&D CEO ended by talking about branding, and this is encouraging. "We are going to invest and build on the brand" -- Windows Phone. That will happen with carriers and retailers and through actual marketing. My take: Windows Phone as a single brand is sensible.
"We're excited about Windows Mobile 6.5," he boasted during the first Q&A session.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Pirate Bay shut down in Netherlands

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 8:11pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

BREIN has won its suit against the Pirate bay, and now the troubled torrent indexing site has 10 days to block all traffic coming from within the Netherlands.
Anti-piracy group Stichting BREIN (loosely translated as "the BRAIN Foundation,) took The Pirate Bay to court in Amsterdam last month for copyright infringement and demanded that the site block all Dutch visitors. The court announced its ruling today that the Pirate Bay's operators must "both separately and together permanently stop the infringements on copyright and related rights of Stichting BREIN in the Netherlands." Every day the site remains up will earn the owners an additional €30,000 fine.
Now that the "big case" is over, which resulted in the Pirate Bay's founders being sentenced to one year in prison and fined 30 million Kronor each, other cases against the Pirate Bay have focused on individual issues.
A group of Hollywood studios, for example, took the site's founders to court in Sweden this week with a cease and desist order for indexes of 100 or so individual films and television programs. The service frequently receives legal threats from copyright owners.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Apple increases Time Capsule backup storage to 2TB, releases iDisk iPhone app

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 7:42pm CEST par Nate Mook

By Nate Mook, Betanews

After being rumored in April, Apple has taken the wraps off a new version of its Time Capsule with 2 terabytes of integrated storage. The device functions as a router and network storage appliance for automated backups using Mac OS X's Time Machine feature.
The 2TB Time Capsule looks to be the same internally aside from the bigger hard drive, and sells for $499. The 1TB model is priced at $299, while the original 500GB Time Capsule has been discontinued.
Separately, Apple has released a long-awaited iDisk application for iPhones. The free app enables MobileMe users to access documents stored on the service, although it only supports certain file types and cannot upload or download. TUAW has posted a review of the app and concludes, "if you've already shelled out the cost for MobileMe, this is a pretty good free alternative if uploading, downloading and a few other features aren't on your list of must-haves."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Dell lands in hot water over Taiwanese pricing glitches

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 7:07pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

In late June and early July, Dell's Taiwanese Web shop accidentally created some outlandishly cheap deals on Dell hardware which resulted in a huge influx of orders that Dell could not fill. The company is now facing fines from Taiwan's Consumer Protection Commission and Fair Trade Commission for misleading customers.
From about 11pm on June 25 until 7am the next day, Dell mistakenly had a 19" LCD monitor on its site listed as costing NT$500, or roughly $15. In that 8 hour period, deal-crazed consumers ordered more than 140,000 of the cheap monitors only to later be told that it was a mistake. Taiwan's Consumer Protection Commission reported 471 complaints, and then recommended that Dell give each customer one monitor at the $15 and then offer the rest (since everyone ordered multiples) at a discount.
Dell Taiwan later compensated monitor buyers with an NT$1,000 discount coupon, but naturally the consumers were upset.
As if that wasn't enough, a second glitch happened on July 4 at midnight that offered a certain configuration of the Latitude E4300 notebook --valued at NT$60,900 ($1,855)-- for only NT$18,588 ($566). More than 49,884 notebooks were reportedly ordered during that mishap.
The company offered coupons to those who placed orders, but the NT$20,000 ($600) discount was again not good enough to smooth over the costly mis-labeling.
So today, in addition to the discount vouchers Dell is offering for both products, Taiwanese authorities say the computer company must pay one million Taiwan dollars ($30,500) for failing to fully honor the online offers, and The Fair Trade Commission has launched an investigation into whether Dell was misleading consumers on its Web site, which could result in a further fine of up to 25 million Taiwan dollars ($770,000).
It's actually quite a small price to pay. If Dell were to fill all the orders it received both times, it would amount to a loss of more than $76 million.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Steve Ballmer has been running Microsoft's Windows business for past 12 months

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 5:56pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

[Editor's note: This was a live document starting around 11:56 am until 1:03 pm EDT.]
Microsoft's annual Financial Analysts Meeting opened under a fog -- a cloud of uncertainty not seen since the company went public in 1986. For most of fiscal 2009, which ended June 30, Microsoft offered Wall Street no guidance on earnings. During fiscal fourth quarter, net income plummeted by 29 percent and revenue for all five product divisions fell year over year. Microsoft also reported its first annual revenue decline ever. When will the fog clear, and what will it reveal?
Financial analysts have reason to hope. Yesterday, Microsoft cut a long anticipated search deal with Yahoo, smart marketing got the new Bing brand off to a surprisingly good start and important -- some exciting -- new products will ship during fiscal 2010, such as Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Exchange Server 2010, Azure Platform Services and Office 2010.
This morning, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stepped through the fog to stand before Wall Street's finest on the FAM stage. Once again, he harkened about the global economic collapse -- the econolypse -- leading to a "reset." Recovery will be at a lower level. But he also swept his hand, and with typical booming voice cleared away some of the fog. Microsoft will not only survive but excel. Microsoft will spend $9.5 billion in research and development during fiscal 2010. "We have to innovate," Ballmer said. To "grow on a "sustained basis," Microsoft must look to the long term, he emphasized.
During FAM 2008, "We were living in a very different world economically," Ballmer said. "The economy really slowed down, but we did not slow down at Microsoft." He spoke about the importance of Azure and Windows 7 and other products coming during fiscal 2010.
Microsoft's CEO acknowledged that Microsoft had stumbled with mobile phones. "Will we succeed in phones?" Ballmer asked. "It was a tough year in executing in phones." He asserted that "for-profit-only software" -- not a phone from Microsoft -- is the way to get 40 percent to 50 percent market share.
Ballmer said that there was no plan for Microsoft to announce the Yahoo search deal the day before FAM. He described the agreement as a "win-win deal" and win-win partnership" for both companies. He said the biggest benefits would come in North America and the few other Microsoft and Yahoo have combined reach. "Google has about 90-percent paid search market share in Europe," Ballmer said. "
Ballmer described the search deal as "a tool for product improvement." With scale, Microsoft can make the search experience -- of which advertising is an important part -- better. "Product improvement is the key to market share," he asserted.
"For the last 12 months, I've been running our Windows business," Ballmer said. That is why Steven Sinofsky, who was recently promoted to president of the Client business, didn't give the Windows presentation. Ballmer spoke about the importance of integration -- what Ballmer called a "vibrancy" -- with other products, such as Office 2010. Some of that vibrancy will in the future come between Bing and WIndows. This vibrancy is important to Windows continued success. "We're going to come under competitive attack," he asserted.
Ballmer boasted: "New PC designs -- boom -- we're going to have a heck of a Christmas." He reviewed something that most financial analysts should already know: "The bulk of our Windows business comes with the sale of new PCs" -- about 80 percent.
Ballmer spoke about the super-hot netbook category, which -- he didn't say -- has sapped Windows profits during fiscal 2009. He made clear that Microsoft sees netbooks as evolving to larger screens: "Ultrathin -- it's a high-end netbook." Ballmer didn't mention the Dell Adamo, but that's the kind of portable he referred to. Clearly, a high-end netbook would be attractive to Microsoft. "We need an expensive netbook," he said while describing Windows revenue for 2010.
Ballmer made clear that Microsoft's official netbook license is for smaller screens. But with respect to netbooks that OEMs could put Windows "XP on the machine at one price," Windows 7 Starter Edition would be available at a higher price and Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional at even higher prices.
Microsoft's CEO briefly spoke about Apple competition. He described Apple's market share gains as "a rounding error. He emphasized: "Apple's share globally cost us nothing." But he did observe where Microsoft needs to do better: "We have lower share in the investor audience." He joked about the number of Mac laptops at FAM: "Don't hide them. I've already counted them. Feel free, as long as you're using Office."
Ballmer made clear that Microsoft's business is different from Apple's, which is high-priced, low volume. Microsoft is going for high-volume, high-value and low price. "You can't be high priced. That doesn't get us to the high volume that we aspire to," he said.
Apple justifies higher pricer by asserting that "'at the end of the day we have the coolest hardware," Ballmer claimed. He repeated that for holiday 2009, Windows PC manufacturers will release new hardware -- and that will wipe away Apple's hardware design justification. It's possible to make cool computers, with hardware and software coming from different companies, he asserted. Cool doesn't have to come from an end-to-end provider.
Microsoft will continue to "invest in Windows marketing," Ballmer said. He put up a slide showing how Microsoft's brand improved against Apple's following the "I'm a PC" advertising campaign, which includes "The Rookies" and "Laptop Hunters" sub-campaigns.
Ballmer described Windows 7 as "the flagship" and "the hub." He emphasized Windows' importance to all Microsoft's lines of businesses.
Microsoft's CEO got on fire, and went way, way, way over his alloted time. He concluded by talking about how Microsoft is investing in the future and whether "the company is well run," which he posed as a question to financial analysts.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
VoloMedia claims it holds patent on podcasting, drawing howls of protest

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 5:40pm CEST par Angela Gunn

By Angela Gunn, Betanews

A California company has announced that it has been awarded a patent for a "Method for Providing Episodic Media" on Tuesday. US Patent 7.568,213 was described by the firm as a "patent for podcasting," but company founder Murgesh Navar says the scope is actually broader than that.
Podcasting is generally thought of as RSS-based -- sign up and the episodes flow to your reader of choice. The patent doesn't specify RSS delivery, meaning that in theory other methods would fall under its purview.
Needless to say, patent observers jumped on the announcement with many feet. Several cited a 2001 post by Dave Winer concerning "payloads" (enclosures) for RSS feeds, which he put together after sustained nudging by Adam Curry to get right with high-quality video over the Internet. VoloMedia's application was filed in 2008, though it is based on a 2003 filing concerning "Personalized Episodic Download Media Service."
In a post on Wednesday, Winer acknowledged that he has heard about the filing and said, "I'm certainly not a lawyer or an expert in patent law, but it seems the work Adam Curry and I did in creating the format and protocol for podcasting, in 2001, may have inspired their "invention." It certainly predates it."
In a post to VoloMedia's blog, Mr. Navar notes that various companies already have contractual arrangements with the firm, including ABC News, MSNBC, Fox News, and PRI (Public Radio International). He says, "The impact of a strong growing IP portfolio is such that we would expect new entrants into the podcasting arena to have a collaborative relationship with VoloMedia, just as do many of the current players."
NewTeeVee reports that VoloMedia is already in talks with Apple and various TV networks about working together, and that Mr. Navar says actual content providers won't be affected by the ruling.
VoloMedia has been keeping busy while it waits on patent approvals -- there are apparently more applications in the pipeline at USPTO -- by providing "dynamic advertising insertion, targeting, measurement, reporting and campaign management within RSS-based portable video and audio," as their site puts it. CEO and president Brian Steel is an old Yahoo hand from the era of their Overture (nee GoTo.com) acquisition.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Nintendo and Sony report steep declines in video game and console sales

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 5:40pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Today, both Nintendo and Sony reported substantial declines in video game revenue and console sales for the quarter ending on June 30. While much of the decline stems from the strengthened Yen which is causing huge currency exchange losses for all Japanese electronics companies, video game spending has hit a brick wall.
Nintendo, which has spend most of the current console generation far ahead of competitors Sony and Microsoft, sold approximately half as many consoles as it did in the previous quarter. Wii unit sales were down 47% in Europe, 60% in Japan, and 65% in the Americas. Globally, Nintendo's popular DS handheld sold 6 million units, or a decline of 20% over last year. This drop in sales, accompanied by the exchange problem with the Yen amounted to a 61% decline in profits year over year, or ¥42 billion ($443 Million.)
Sony's sales decline was a little less dramatic than Nintendo's, but no less serious. In total, Sony sold 32% fewer PlayStation 3 consoles and 65% fewer PlayStation Portables than it did in the same quarter last year. Sony's Networked Products unit, which includes Sony Computer Entertainment, Vaio, and Walkmen lines posted a loss of ¥39.7 billion. In its overall business, Sony experienced its second straight losing quarter, chalking up a net loss of ¥37.1 billion ($390 million).
Earlier this month, NPD reported that the total U.S. gaming market fell 31% with only a few blockbuster titles released in the quarter. But as Nintendo noted in its earnings call this time around, non-console games are beginning to have an effect on sales. Apple's iPhone, for example, is starting to seriously cut into the handheld market, and iPhone games that can be produced comparatively quickly and cheaply are competing with games that take much longer to produce and release.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Study indicates that vulnerability management's getting no better

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 4:26pm CEST par Angela Gunn

By Angela Gunn, Betanews

In the festivity and fun that is the annual Black Hat gathering (confidential to D. Tangent: okay, I give up, how did you manage to get it as warm in Seattle this week as it in in Vegas?), it's easy to miss some of the small but telling talks that frame the discussion. I'm the first to admit that I'm all atwitter waiting for Thursday's pwn-any-iPhone vulnerability reveal, but on Wednesday I'm sitting with Qualys's report on the state of vulnerabilites out in the world, enjoying it much as one enjoys the Up series of movies.
The Up documentary series, for those who haven't Netflixed it, is following 14 British kids through their lives, interviewing them at 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, and 49 so far. (The series started in 1964.) The concept is based on the old Jesuit saying, "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man," and the filmmakers are watching to see if that's true -- if the rich kids stay rich, if the kids in unsettled homes grew up to have unsettled homes of their own, and so forth. If potentials are pronouncements, in other words.
It's good stuff, and though the Qualys report has a long way to go to replicate that sort of long-arc data accretion -- the company released its first report in '04, and this is the second, covering 2008 -- it's interesting to ask what sort of progress we've made on coping with bugs and what sort of creature the security industry is turning out to be.
Of course, the kids in Seven Up actually grew up. Vulnerability management... not so much.
The Laws of Vulnerabilities 2.0 (PDF and PowerPoint available) documents progress, as measured by Qualys' vulnerability SaaS, on four aspects of vulnerability management: the time it takes to reduce occurrences of a vulnerability by half, the turnover rate on the "top 20" vulnerability list in the course of a year, the lifespan of vulnerabilities, and the time elapsed between the announcement of an exploit and the first attack spotted.
Bluntly put, we've made no progress. The half-life of a vulnerability is unchanged at about 30 days, with some industries (service industries, finance, wholesale/retail) doing a bit better and some (healthcare, manufacturing) doing even worse at applying the patches necessary to knock down those occurrences. Persistence is also unchanged: Simply put, a vulnerability lasts forever; they do not die; they are never fully patched into oblivion; you will never be done patching old holes. The report estimates that even critical vulnerabilities eventually stabilize at a 5-10% infection rate.
And that's the good news. The prevalence of vulnerabilities big enough to make the top-20 list has increased, with 60% of vulnerabilities spotted lasting through the one-year period of the study. Worst of all, the time-to-exploit for new vulnerabilities has crated, happening in less than 10 days on average compared to 60 days in 2004.
The authors of the study noted that there have been some sea changes from 2004 that admittedly make certain comparisons over time tough. Research focus has changed in large part from server-side vulnerabilities to those found in desktop apps, a far larger field of play; that could have something to do with why the number of vulnerabilities reported has more than doubled in the past five years. Some of the apps that seem to hold down a permanent place in the top 20, however, aren't that new to anyone: Microsoft Office, Sun Java, and Adobe Reader. (Windows 2003 Server SP2 also makes the unfortunate list.) 'This list proves," the report dryly notes, "that there are applications that are not receiving enough attention by IT administrators."
Qualys derived its number from 104 million scans done by approximately 3,500 organizations last year.
At this point, if the security industry were one of the kids from the Up series, we'd shake our heads and consign it to being no better, no more capable of improving its lot, than the most dismal interpretations of "and I will give you the man" might have predicted -- a pessimistic outlook that meshes fairly well with the reality of fighting back threats, network weirdness, and endless new attack surfaces on a daily basis. But there are slivers of good news in the report too; for instance, Qualys points to good progress on shrinking exploitation windows by sorting applications into priority and non-priority update rosters, and making sure net-facing apps such as browsers are in the high-priority group. And Chrome and Firefox developers merit praise in the report for using update mechanisms to aggressively push patches. In other words, it may be tempting to give up on vulnerability management even at this early stage of the game, but as with the kids of the Up series, the ultimate answer is just not that simple -- nor that inevitable.
And then there's this: As I finish this column late Wednesday night, I'm wondering what Facebook's next privacy debacle will be, now that they've managed to demonstrate that data-sharing settings on certain applications can be hamstrung with the greatest of ease. (Facebook's not talking at the moment, but if they were my first question would be about whether some glitch has surfaced as we near the launch of those more-granular privacy controls we've all been promised.) How do they top dumping all one's tweets onto one wall -- auto-launch of webcams on user machines, reverse the block-user functionality, post everyone's PII in the main feed? Facebook is already one of those companies that gives privacy nerds the heebie-jeebies. Foolishness like this, especially when it seems that every affected service BUT Facebook has indicted that it's aware of the problem, does not help.
And also: Apple partisans can find an excuse for everything their pet company does, so I'd like to invite the fanboi contingent to explain how it is that Cupertino is Good And Just And Sweet Like Puppies with this claim to the Copyright Office that allowing iPhone owners to jailbreak their handsets could endanger the nation's mobile-phone infrastructure. The rest of us are going to just stand by and feel sorry for you while you do that. But I'll give the company credit: The claim is the one of the damnedest advances in the field of Security Theater that I have ever seen. Always innovating, Apple.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Facebook feeds faceplant in third-party status tsunami

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 7:14am CEST par Angela Gunn

By Angela Gunn, Betanews

An apparent glitch in Facebook's settings has taken to pulling in updates from users' other services -- FriendFeed, Twitter, Mafia Wars and perhaps others -- whether or not it has been authorized to do so. Only uninstalling the relevant Facebook applications seems to quell the flood.
Aghast users were reporting late Wednesday that feeds from multiple services were appearing on their Facebook walls no matter what the current privacy settings might be. It's a potential privacy nightmare for users such as Kyle Sellers, who commented on a message board that "I specifically keep my accounts separate so I don't overwhelm my family with my political rantings. I have never been so furious with a web service before. I understand a service failing, but this seems both sinister and dishonest."
Facebook has offered no comment as of early Thursday morning; meanwhile, "Twitter Overwhelms" is currently the #1 trending topic on that service.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Apple using scare tactics to stop iPhone jailbreaking from becoming legal

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 6:30am CEST par Nate Mook

By Nate Mook, Betanews

In the more than two years since the iPhone has been available, Apple has largely remained quiet about "jailbreaking," in which users modify the device's software to run third-party applications. Now that the EFF is pushing to make this practice officially legal, Apple is finally speaking up, but is it too late?
In a support article published late Wednesday, Apple for the first time discussed jailbreaking, calling it "hacking" in order to make "unauthorized modifications" to the iPhone and iPod Touch.
What does jailbreaking lead to? If you listen to Apple, it sounds quite dangerous.
The company warns of, "Frequent and unexpected crashes of the device, crashes and freezes of built-in apps and third-party apps, and loss of data." More ominously, Apple says, "Security compromises have been introduced by these modifications that could allow hackers to steal personal information, damage the device, attack the wireless network, or introduce malware or viruses."
Perhaps the strangest claim, however, is that jailbreaking can lead to the iPhone OS being "damaged" like a cracked egg such that it is "not repairable." In turn, iPhones or iPods that have been jailbroken risk "becoming permanently inoperable."
If the practice is so dangerous, why is Apple only publicly raising concern now, when customers have been jailbreaking their iPhones since 2007? The answer to that question likely lies in a recent effort by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to officially legalize jailbreaking through a DMCA exemption.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed in 1998, states that "no person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title." However, the United States Copyright Office makes exceptions to this rule every 3 years -- the last one in 2006 and the next one this year. The EFF has petitioned the Copyright Office to make jailbreaking exempt under fair use laws.
"Jailbreaking an iPhone in order to run lawfully obtained software does not constitute copyright infringement. Nothing in the Apple iPhone Software License Agreement changes this conclusion," EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann wrote in a letter to the Copyright Office dated July 13 (PDF from Wired).
Of course, Apple had an entirely different opinion on the matter. "Jailbreaking constitutes copyright infringement. Because jailbreaking involves unauthorized modifications to Apple's copyrighted bootloader and OS programs, it is a violation of 17 U.S.C. § 106(1) & (2), unless such modifications are either within the scope of the license granted under the IPSLA (which they are not), or are covered by the statutory rights under 17 U.S.C. § 117 or by the fair use doctrine (again, which they are not, as detailed below)," the company wrote (PDF from Wired).
"More pernicious forms of activity may also be enabled. For example, a local or international hacker could potentially initiate commands (such as a denial of service attack) that could crash the tower software, rendering the tower entirely inoperable to process calls or transmit data," Apple told the Copyright Office.
The weakest link in Apple's arguments, as the EFF's von Lohmann points out, is that millions of iPhones have long been jailbroken and none of the dire risks raised by the company have materialized. Apple also has largely been tolerant of those with jailbroken iPhones, admitting that it hasn't excluded them from warranty coverage (although, Apple indicates it will be forced to deny warranty coverage if jailbreaking becomes legal and thus more widespread).
Now, Apple can point to the support article that publicizes its position on jailbreaking as proof of the risks (it can't be made up if it's in an official document!), as well as its position that the practice violates the DMCA and should not be made exempt:
"It is also important to note that unauthorized modification of the iPhone OS is a violation of the iPhone end-user license agreement and because of this, Apple may deny service for an iPhone or iPod touch that has installed any unauthorized software."
What do you think: Should jailbreaking an iPhone or iPod Touch to run third party software be legal?
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Microsoft-Yahoo deal is Google's Christmas-in-July present

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 2:11am CEST par Joe Wilcox
By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

There's an irony about the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal. At one time, Yahoo provided search services to Microsoft. Now Microsoft is returning the favor. Well, if anyone could call the outsourcing of Bing search to Yahoo a favor. It's not. I predict that the deal will create two losers, with Google lapping up more search share -- at least in North America.
The Microsoft-Yahoo deal is a strange one. It's the difference between two people living together and getting married. Microsoft and Yahoo will share common residence, but within somewhat separate confines, work schedules, belongings and bank accounts. This isn't even a marriage of convenience. I wouldn't even call it cohabitation. Microsoft and Yahoo are roommates who share space but different, often conflicting, priorities.
There's a screenplay in this deal, another sequel to movie "Dumb and Dumber." But which CEO, Microsoft or Yahoo, should play which role? The deal is "dumberer" for both companies, and for different reasons.
Search cannibalization. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has long wanted to combine his company's search share with Yahoo's. The idea: Bring Microsoft search share closer to Google's. According to ComScore, Google's US share search share was 65 percent in June, followed by Yahoo at 19.6 percent and Microsoft at 8.4 percent. Conceptually, combined Microsoft-Yahoo would be 28 percent, which is a lot closer to 65 percent than is 8.4 percent.
Microsoft's reasoning, as first explained during the failed Yahoo takeover in 2008: Combined search share would give Microsoft enough reach to build out the customer and advertiser experience. I think everyone should have dreams, so, please, pardon my chucking black paint onto Steve Ballmer's rainbow.
Microsoft's math doesn't add up. Bing is proof of that. Microsoft search share was up 0.4 percent month on month in June, while Yahoo receded by 0.5 percent. Search share for the other top five providers, including Google, was flat month over month. By all appearances, Bing cannibalized Yahoo search during the new engine's first full month of service.
Further cannibalization is inevitable, and there is likely to be heaps of it. Matters would have been worse had Microsoft bought Yahoo and consolidated all search under a single brand. My prediction: Combined Microsoft-Yahoo share will be less than 20 percent within 12 months of the deal's closing -- and that's my being somewhat generous so that I don't get totally flamed in comments.
Crown jewel. Yahoo is giving up its core asset to Microsoft. Yahoo essentially has three crown jewels: Its popular and hugely valuable brands, search and banner advertising. Search is the core around pretty much everything revolves. Yahoo wants to give that up to a competitor? Exactly what incentive does Microsoft have, then, to help Yahoo?
Microsoft and Yahoo are competitors by most every measure other than PC and server software. Other than search, their areas of competition include: small business hosting and services, Web e-mail, instant messaging, portals and online finance, mapping, travel, health and music, among many other products and services. Yahoo's online reach, in terms of branding and time people stay online, is greater than Microsoft's.
It's inconceivable to me that Yahoo would give up something so valuable for limited gains:
- $700 million -- $500 million operating revenue and $200 million cost reduction
- $250 million increase in cashflow
- From Microsoft, 88 percent TAC, or traffic acquisition cost, at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue
It's like Yahoo has sold its soul to the devil under separate five- and 10-year terms. Yahoo started as a search company. Search is still core to the company's business, strategic and technological identity. Overture, which Yahoo bought in 2003, pioneered the keyword business model that Google made mighty profitable. Yahoo search share is more than double Microsoft's for good reasons. Search is Yahoo's soul.
The crown jewel Yahoo gives up today is another it loses tomorrow. Future search technology development will come from Microsoft, not Yahoo. What is smart about Yahoo giving up search technology development and essentially abandoning its research and development investment in the Panama ad system?
Something else: Bing search share gains, as widely reported by many news sites, are overrated. Those weekly search gains cited after Bing's launch aren't yet sustainable, as shown by more granular search data released by ComScore. There were 1.02 billion searches at Bing in June. Windows Live/MSN racked up 1.19 billion searches in May, 1.25 billion in April and 1.19 billion in March, according to ComScore. From that perspective, Bing search declined month on month in June compared to Windows Live/MSN in May. So let me see if I understand. Yahoo wants to swap out something that works for something unproven? It's another reason to wonder about Yahoo losing share once Microsoft controls search.
Missing mobile. Microsoft has been chasing Google for way too long. I would dare call Steve Ballmer obsessed with catching Google. Microsoft is distracted from more important matters, such as developing a solid mobile strategy, which includes search. I keep wondering how much of this Google obsession is about pride. It's like Microsoft executives are trying to recapture 2001-2002, when Microsoft led Google in search.
Two events catapulted Microsoft to US search leadership, starting in late 2001: Internet Explorer pushed "404" page not find errors to MSN Search; Windows XP launched. Microsoft not Google was the search leader. But by the end of 2002, Microsoft had fallen to third rank behind Google and Yahoo. MSN Search kept steady, while Google and Yahoo gained users. According to what was then ComScore MediaMetrix: Between March 2002 and May 2003, MSN Search grew by about 1 percent, as measured in number of visitors, compared to about 25 percent growth for Google.
Microsoft might regain some glory days, if the company spent more time on mobile, which is the future of search. But Google has won the desktop and is rapidly gaining on mobile devices. Cell phones are captive devices, meaning most people carry them -- and increasingly use them for more than telephony. In June, ComScore reported on March-to-March mobile search usage: Up 51 percent, in the United States. Something else: ComScore said that mobile Web browsers are the "leading access method for seeking local information."
Meanwhile, mobile advertising is in its infancy, but growing. Google doesn't have to dominate mobile the way it does the desktop. Last week, the Kelsey Group released its forecast for mobile search and advertising revenue in Europe. Between 2008 and 2013, revenues are predicted to increase from 39 million euros to 2.3 billion euros (or US $55.49 million to $3.7 billion, at today's exchange rate). The European mobile market is larger than the United States -- 499 million handsets versus 266 million, respectively, at the end of 2008, according to Kelsey Group. The analyst firm sees smartphones as being a major driver of mobile advertising. The number of smartphones in Europe is predicted to increase from 32 million last year to 149 million by 2013.
Microsoft needs a mobile operating system and browser Manhattan Project a lot more than it needs a Yahoo search deal. If Steve Ballmer must obsess about Google, he should focus on where the rival isn't yet entrenched and where also is the future of computing.
The antitrust quandary. The Microsoft-Yahoo deal is subject to regulatory approval. Those trustbusters must have their say. Some lawyer surely will argue that the deal could lead the market to consolidate around two search engines: Bing and Google. The other two major search leaders, AOL and Ask, had 7 percent combined search share in June, according to ComScore. Their share will recede, someone will tell trustbusters.
Now here's a strange thought: What if regulators reject the deal not because Microsoft-Yahoo would be too big but because search cannibalization would make Google too big? That's not typically how antitrust law applies, but there is an argument for the deal making Google a bigger monopoly. Strange as it might sound, Google lawyers could use this argument against the deal. It is not typically how companies argue antitrust -- that a deal should be prohibited because a dominant third-party would gain more market share. Nevertheless, the logic is sensible.
Google already is a bigger monopoly. AOL's search share was 3.1 percent in June. But, technically speaking, that's really untabulated Google search share; Google still provides paid and unpaid search to AOL. So, Google's real US search share nips 70 percent, and paid search is nearly 80 percent. Do trustbusters really want to risk making it more?
Now, I suppose that Microsoft could seek to steal away AOL, which deal with Google is up for renewal. Then Microsoft would get that untabulated search result. Such circumstance would be good for Bing, I predict, even pushing total search share over my predicted less-than 20 percent.
I'll end with that. I could write a short book on why this deal is bad for Microsoft and worse for Yahoo. Well, damn, I gave away which is Dumb or Dumber.
By the way, as is typical of this kind of announcement, the analysis is my own. I reviewed the announcement material and the BetaNews "need-to-know" bullet-points story. That way, no one else's thinking influences my opinion.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Microsoft warns about activation crack, but 'pleased' people want to install Windows 7

Publié: juillet 30, 2009, 12:20am CEST par Tim Conneally and Nate Mook

By Tim Conneally and Nate Mook, Betanews

As to be expected, Microsoft responded to news today that Windows 7 activation had already been cracked by telling Betanews that customers should not pirate the operating system. But the company also said it was happy to hear that people wanted to install Windows 7.
Following the publication of an activation crack for Windows 7 mere days after it was released to manufacturing, we contacted Microsoft to hear its take on the issue, which appears to be a repeat of the Windows Vista crack from 2006. Windows XP activation was also cracked not long after its launch.
"Microsoft strongly advises customers not to download Windows 7 from unauthorized sources. Downloading Windows 7 from peer-to-peer Web sites is piracy, and exposes users to increased risks -- such as viruses, Trojans and other malware and malicious code -- that usually accompany counterfeit software. These risks can seriously harm or permanently destroy data and often expose users to identity theft and other criminal schemes," the company told us.
Nonetheless, Microsoft actually seemed flattered by the crack, a surprising admission that probably has more to do with making Windows desirable again than piracy.
"We're pleased that customers are eager to begin using Windows 7!" a Microsoft spokesperson added.
Decades ago, the anecdotes go, Microsoft actually liked people pirating Windows, because it helped spread the operating system and eventually establish its dominance across the PC market. It may be "strongly advising" people not to pirate Windows 7, but it's clear the company desperately wants customers to want the upgrade.
Is this a sign of lowered expectations after Vista's painful launch, which was delayed by more than nine months and then saw only a lukewarm reception?
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009