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BetaNews.Com (9 non lus)

Motorola Xoom tablet gets upgrade to Android 4.0 starting today

Publié: janvier 18, 2012, 9:00pm CET par Tim Conneally

Motorola Mobility on Wednesday announced its popular Xoom Wi-Fi tablets will be the first of the company's Android-powered devices to receive the upgrade to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich,) beginning immediately.

Xoom was actually the first major tablet to be released running Android 3.1 (Honeycomb), the somewhat ill-conceived "tablet only" version of Android. With today's rollout of the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade, it becomes the first Honeycomb tablet to receive the operating system upgrade.

Motorola said the over-the-air upgrade will begin rolling out "in phases over the course of a few weeks," and that users will be notified when their upgrade is available.
It's not because of iPhone 4S

Publié: janvier 18, 2012, 8:36pm CET par Joe Wilcox
That's again my reaction to startling US mobile numbers that Nielsen released today. Like comScore, Nielsen shows dramatic -- and I mean absolutely stunning -- changes in Android and iPhone adoption since the 4S shipped. Android share, as measured in smartphone operating systems among new purchasers, plummeted from 61.6 percent in October to 46.9 percent in December. Meanwhile, iPhone rose from 25.1 percent share to 44.5 percent. Distribution -- not release of iPhone 4S -- is reason, or so I say.

Nielsen, naturally sees something else: "The high-profile launch of Apple’s iPhone 4S in the Fall had an enormous impact on the proportion of smartphone owners who chose an Apple iPhone" -- that would be for November and December. But that simplistic analysis overlooks mitigating factors. Among the most important -- 43 percent of new buyers chose older iPhones 4 or 3GS.

More broadly, the influences:
- iPhone 4 and 3GS price cuts -- to $99 and free, respectively.
- Addition of new carrier partners, Sprint nationally and some regional (C Spire).
- iPhone sells alongside Androids on all three major carriers, meaning there's competition from Apple.
- iCloud is a hugely appealing service and, along with iOS 5, is available for all three iPhone versions -- 3GS, 4 and 4S.
All these things dramatically broadened iPhone distribution in the United States. The new carriers opened up iPhone to subscribers who couldn't or wouldn't switch to get the handset. Lower pricing on older models broadened the number of people who wanted iPhone but couldn't or wouldn't pay $199 or more to get one. Lower pricing also lessened the appeal of cheap Androids these Americans might otherwise have purchased.

The proof is in earlier comScore and Nielsen data, even without benefit of separated sales -- for iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S -- which would definitively answer who is buying what. According to comScore, the top three selling iPhones are 4S, 4 and 3GS in that order, which certainly says something. But Nielsen says more: "57 percent of new iPhone owners surveyed in December said they got an iPhone 4S". That means 43 percent bought one of the two older models; that's the sales power of lower pricing.

The historical data tells an interesting story. Despite the hype, iPhone share among all subscribers or new purchasers did not perceptually change following the release of iPhone 4 on AT&T and later on Verizon. It was a big upgrade from iPhone 3GS, with new enclosure, dramatically better display and higher-resolution camera. By comparison, the 4S was a modest upgrade.

For example, according to comScore, from August to November 2010, iPhone US subscriber share rose less than one point -- to 25 percent. This was during the post-iPhone 4 launch period. Over the next year, iPhone nudged up to about 27 percent average share, while Android soared, whether measured by install base or new purchasers.

Then Verizon release iPhone 4 in February 2011, with wild predictions Apple handset's would make huge share gains. It didn't. Canalys was right a year ago, when it predicted that iPhone 4 on Verizon wouldn't slow Android growth. For example, Android share was 39 percent in June 2011 compared to 28 percent for iPhone, says Nielsen. Android share reached 40 percent in July, compared to 28 percent for iPhone. At end of third quarter, 43 percent for Android and 28 percent for iPhone. In August, 56 percent of new US smartphone purchasers chose Android and 28 percent iPhone, also according to Nielsen.

The historical data contradicts earlier projections that both iPhone 4 launches would bring huge share gains. Meanwhile, 4S is, as previously mentioned, a modest upgrade. Different now: Distribution, particularly availability of lower-cost older models, to a new market of buyers. Unquestionably, Apple's handset is on a roll, at least here in the United States, but it's not because of iPhone 4S.
RemoteRebootX: Easily reboot, shut down or wake networked PCs

Publié: janvier 18, 2012, 6:31pm CET par Mike Williams

If you’d like to remotely restart or shut down a system on your network then Windows already provides some basic assistance. A command like shutdown /s /m \\hostname, say, will try to close down the named computer, and you can tweak precisely how this will work in many different ways (enter shutdown /? at a command line for the full list).

Command line tools aren’t always the most convenient way to manage your network, though. So if you’d like an easier way to monitor running systems, remotely restart or shut them down whenever you like, and wake them up as well, then you’ll probably prefer the small but surprisingly powerful RemoteRebootX.

The configuration process starts by giving RemoteRebootX the list of hosts you’d like to manage. There’s no option to automatically scan your network, unfortunately, but it’s easy enough to add them manually: just type the “+” button and enter your host names or IP addresses. Or if you’ve a really big network, there’s also the option to import host names from a file.

If you intend to use the Wake-On-LAN feature then you’ll need your host’s MAC addresses, too, but these can be captured automatically by selecting them all and clicking Actions > Get MAC Address.

And then you can get started. To reboot or shut down one or most hosts, for instance, just choose the systems you need, right-click and select the appropriate reboot or shutdown function. (RemoteRebootX supports both regular shutdowns, which can be cancelled if someone is working at the PC and needs to save something, and forced shutdowns, which will close applications even if they have unsaved data.)

Once you have the MAC address, it’s just as easy to wake up a remote system. Well, in theory, anyway: the remote network adapter needs Wake-On-LAN support, and it has to be enabled by the driver, so if this doesn’t work then you might want to check those details first.

RemoteRebootX also includes a capable scheduler, so you can set up any reboot, shutdown or wake tasks to run entirely automatically.

And useful bonus features include easy access to key system information details on the remote system (last boot time, free space on the system drive, Windows services status), a ping option to help you see which PCs are online, and the ability to initiate a remote desktop connection to your chosen host in a couple of clicks.

If there’s one complication here, it’s that RemoteRebootX doesn’t automatically save your network data, presumably because it’s a portable tool which can be used on many different systems. So keep in mind that you’ll have to click File > Save State to save your hosts, MAC addresses and so on, and File > Load State when launching the program to reload them.

Otherwise, though, the program is straightforward, easy to use and packed with handy features, and should make an excellent addition to most people’s networking armory.

Photo Credit: vovan/Shutterstock
iPad invades the enterprise

Publié: janvier 18, 2012, 6:19pm CET par Joe Wilcox

Last week I chimed: "Only Windows 8 can save the PC market now". Weak consumer computer sales forebode market shifts ahead, but so do those in the enterprise. An IDG Connect study reveals just how much: IT and business decision makers are augmenting or replacing PCs with iPads at an alarming rate.

"Fully 51 percent of IT and business decision-makers say they always use their iPad at work", according to the report -- and, of course, that's the number who actually own the tablet. Sixteen percent have replaced their laptop with an iPad and 54 percent supplement it. Remember, these numbers are for people responsible for corporate computing. As the wind shifts in their sails -- or should that be sales -- so does it eventually across the computing infrastructure. The data suggests that iPads are significantly starting to cannibalize PC sales -- and not just among consumers -- and it's consistent with recent global PC buying trends.

For PC vendors and Microsoft the most troubling data comes from some international markets, where Apple has done well recently, and emerging locales that still aren't PC sales saturated like the United States is. In the Middle East and Asia, 70 percent and 63 percent, respectively, of IT and business professionals have "partly replaced" their laptop with iPad. "In South America, 27 percent have 'completely replaced' their laptop with an iPad", according to the report. "In Europe, the figure is 23 percent".

In Africa, 47 percent of iPads are purchased by employers -- 40 percent in Europe. In some global markets, then, consumerization of IT is much less a factor bringing iPad into the workplace. Businesses buy the tablets, and professionals use them for work, primarily for web browsing, reading and news consumption. Web browsing includes accessing work-related assets on local intranets.

"These findings suggest that a substantial number of professionals regard their iPad as a viable business tool", according to the study.

The implications for Microsoft are staggering. There is no Microsoft Office for iPad, yet IT decision-makers are supplementing or replacing their computers with Apple's tablet. However, work usage habits vary dramatically by region, which not surprisingly is in line with Microsoft core markets.

According to the report, "North Americans use their iPads slightly more intensively than the global norm, with a strong emphasis on web-based functionality". If persistent rumors about Office coming to iPad aren't true, perhaps they should be. And if anyone is looking for reason why the rumors could be true, here it is.

However, iPad's impact doesn't stop with the personal computer. It in some ways starts there. According to the report:

"Our survey also suggests that tablet computing is transforming patterns of content consumption. iPad-owning IT and business professionals are rapidly migrating away from newspapers and printed books, toward digital alternatives. To a lesser extent, they are moving away from DVD-based audio-visual content towards wholly-digital alternatives. This transition is taking place with striking speed. As tablet computing emerges into the mainstream, both media owners and marketers who produce content will need to consider the implications carefully".

That finding sheds some perspective on Apple's media event planned for January 19 that is rumored to be education related. What if education means something more than e-textbooks, as has been rumored?

The more important question, if you have an iPad, has it displaced or even replaced your work PC?
Share: Your personal torrent client

Publié: janvier 18, 2012, 4:55pm CET par Mark Wilson

When it comes to sharing files, there are a number of options available to you. If you want to share files with someone nearby, it may make sense to pop them on a USB drive and physically deliver them. For smaller files it is possible to make use of email, but things get trickier when larger files are involved. You could go as far as uploading files to your own web space or even setting up your own FTP server, but this is something that few people would want to go to these lengths. Share is a free tool that enables you to overcome these problems and share files of any size.

Coming from BitTorrent, it should come as no surprise to learn how Share works. It is essentially a personal torrent client that makes it possible to allow people of your choice to connect to your computer and access the files you have chosen to share; this is a great example of personal P2P. having created an account, files can be shared by using nothing more than drag and drop, and all you need to do is to select who you would like to share them with.

Sharing can be made into quite a social experience thanks to the ability to comment on files that are being shared. This is a great option if you are using the service to share files relating to a work project as it allows for a degree of collaboration. The fact that Share is available for both Mac and PC means that it is opened up to a larger audience and the ability to create groups for sharing means that sharing files with the same people time and time again is made as fast as possible.

Share is currently an alpha version, so it’s still somewhat experimental, but things are already looking promising. Just as with more major torrent clients such as uTorrent and the like, there will undoubtedly be claims that Share is a tool that could be used for piracy. While this is true to some extent, there are also numerous legitimate uses to which the service can be put. If you’ve found yourself wondering how you are going to share a large video you have shot, this could be the solution you have been looking for.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the app by paying a visit to the Share review page.

Photo Credit: Modella/Shutterstock
Decompile Flash files with HP SwfScan

Publié: janvier 18, 2012, 4:37pm CET par Mike Williams

Pay a visit to HP’s download pages and for the most part you know exactly what you’re going to get: drivers, manuals and all the usual installation software you’d expect from the company’s wide range of products.

Look a little closer, though, and you’ll also find one or two more generally interesting freebies. And so HP’s Web Security Application Group, for instance, has produced a tool called SwfScan, which can both decompile SWF applets and analyze them for security vulnerabilities.

The program is reasonably easy to use. Give it a URL or the path of a local file, click “Get” and in a moment you’ll be able to browse the applet’s code. A search tool (with regular expression support) helps you locate the details you need, and there’s also an option to export the source as a text file if you’d like to examine it elsewhere.

SwfScan is also able to scan the code for a few security issues: just click “Analyze” and check the Vulnerabilities list to see what turns up. The program only performs a basic analysis, so an empty vulnerability list doesn’t mean you’re safe -- there could be many other issues that it’s missed -- but it’s better than not checking your code at all.

And SwfScan also makes it easy to find URLs within the applet, and export them for checking later.

This is all fairly basic. There’s no option to extract or view applet resources, for instance; you don’t get an applet player; and the executable was last updated back in March 2009. Still, the decompiler is compact and reliable, and the vulnerability scanner is a useful extra touch, so if you don’t currently have a Flash decompiler at all then SwfScan could be worth a quick look.
Wikipedia goes dark for 24 hours

Publié: janvier 18, 2012, 4:21pm CET par Joe Wilcox

SOPA blackout day has arrived, and Wikipedia is going farther than the planned 12-hour protest -- from 8 am to 8 pm. The community encyclopedia is going down for twice as long. Today, we'll all learn just how important Wikipedia is to the Internet community. I find it a valuable resource as a journalist. Will you miss it?

Still, there is a nugget of information to be had from Wikipedia: About why the protest. Like many other sites today, the open encyclopedia stands against two pieces of legislation here in the United States: PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), introduced by senators in May, and October bill Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), introduced in the House. A delayed House vote, from December, was scheduled for today but postponed following last week's statement from the White House. SOPA is weakened but not done yet. SOPA Strike provides an excellent timeline for both bills. Senate vote is still scheduled for January 24.

"Wikipedia is protesting against SOPA and PIPA by blacking out the English Wikipedia for 24 hours, beginning at midnight January 18, Eastern Time", according to the "SOPA and PIPA -- Learn more" page. "Readers who come to English Wikipedia during the blackout will not be able to read the encyclopedia. Instead, you will see messages intended to raise awareness about SOPA and PIPA, encouraging you to share your views with your representatives, and with each other on social media".

Either bill would give the government broad powers to take down websites, seize domains and compel search engines from indexing these properties. Little more than a request from copyright holders is necessary. It's essentially guilty-until-proven-innocent legislation that would punish the many for the sins of the few, while disrupting the fundamental attributes that made the Internet so successful and empowered so many individuals or businesses to accomplish so much. (Review the bills: PIPA. SOPA.)

Wired UK's "SOPA 101" guide is one of the best primers posted in recent days, if those bills are too long (and wordy) for you.

Wikipedia's position:

These bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, in our opinion, they do so in a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet. Detailed information about these bills can be found in the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Ac t articles on Wikipedia, which are available during the blackout. GovTrack lets you follow both bills through the legislative process: SOPA on this page, and PIPA on this one. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for the public interest in the digital realm, has summarized why these bills are simply unacceptable in a world that values an open, secure, and free Internet.

Wikipedia is by no means the only protester. SOPA Strike has compiled a long list of participants. But few sites are going as far as Wikipedia. For example, Google has blacked out its logo on the search page. Clicking the large rectangle leads to a "take action" page. Not surprisingly, Google opposes both bills. From its SOPA and PIPA info page:

Law-abiding US Internet companies would have to monitor everything users link to or upload or face the risk of time-consuming litigation...To make matters worse, SOPA and PIPA won’t even work. The censorship regulations written into these bills won’t shut down pirate sites. These sites will just change their addresses and continue their criminal activities, while law-abiding companies will suffer high penalties for breaches they can’t possibly control.

Imagine the impact -- the point to be made -- if Google went dark for even one hour to demonstrate how SOPA or PIPA could negatively affect businesses using the Internet. Of course, lawyers would line up to sue on behalf of lost business revenues. Eh? If Google went dark in protest.

The White House's position is the most perplexing around SOPA and PIPA. "While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet", according to the statement, authored by Aneesh Chopra, US chief technology officer; Victoria Espinel, intellectual property enforcement coordinator; and Howard Schmidt, cybersecurity coordinator. There is stated position to "work with Congress on a bipartisan basis on legislation" that stops piracy and preserves freedom of speech.

As I stated yesterday, if the Obama Administration really opposes SOPA and PIPA, then prove it: Blackout Whitehouse.gov today. Show support for protecting Internet freedoms. Have a look, there's nothing supporting today's protest.
How to control an entire live band with Android

Publié: janvier 18, 2012, 5:00am CET par Tim Conneally

At CES 2012, we took a quick look at Samsung's booth displaying the Galaxy Note as a tool useful to artists and musicians, and I talked about the relatively small number of killer music applications for the Android platform.

Fortunately the band performing in Samsung's booth, Body Language, was willing to show us exactly how they incorporate Android devices into their live music setup, and how we can do the same.

The two apps we see the band using in the video embedded above are touchOSC and TouchDAW.

Two of the Galaxy Notes run touchDAW to control the vocal processing for each singer, and one ran touchDAW to trigger samples from a sample pad, and the x/y controller manipulated filtration on the samples.

The sample triggering device was used by keyboard player Matt Young, who also switched touchDAW to keyboard mode to play lead synth parts directly on the device.

The three devices running touchDAW were remotely controlling a custom MIDI instrument environment in Apple's Logic Studio.

The device running touchOSC was used to manipulate song sequences and control the MIDI master clock in Ableton Live. This basically entails starting and stopping songs, syncing other MIDI instruments, and applying effects in real time.

It's a novel, yet practical and versatile setup. We see in the video that two of the devices were USB tethered, but touchDAW supports MIDI over Bluetooth, so it's possible to occupy all of your laptop's USB inputs and still have room for a wireless controller.
Koobface hackers are easily found on Facebook, elsewhere

Publié: janvier 18, 2012, 2:09am CET par Ed Oswald

The attackers behind the Koobface worm are not doing much to cover their tracks, say security researchers with Facebook and several security firms. Hackers are living a comfortable life in St. Petersburg, Russia, and have been posting freely to social networking sites such as Facebook and Foursquare.

Facebook and law enforcement have reportedly known their identities for several years. At least one of the members of the gang has repeatedly broadcast the location of the group's offices via Foursquare, including pictures of members at work -- presumably spreading Koobface around the world.

Koobface has made this group quite a bit of money since its creation in mid 2008. The attackers made their money through tricking infected users into downloading faked antivirus software. At its height in 2010, Koobface and its variants may have been on as many as 800,000 PCs.

The apprehension of international criminals is difficult due to poor cooperation between the law enforcement entities of different countries, as well as a lack of resources in those countries to fight cybercrime. So companies like Facebook are taking on a different tact: public shaming.

Starting on Tuesday, Facebook plans to start sharing the identities of the Koobface hackers with security researchers and other Internet companies. The company has already shared the identities of those responsible to law enforcement. Why law enforcement has so far failed to apprehend those responsible is not clear -- it probably has to do with those aforementioned issues -- the FBI failed to respond to requests for comment.

Photo Credit: Photosani/Shutterstock